The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Eyes belie stats of reduced homelessness
Atlanta on Wednesday with Kem Jackson, a homeless man who pointed out the “cat holes” where his contemporaries dig in for the night.
There were tent cities under highway ramps near I-20, there were a growing number of men setting up under the viaduct near Grady Memorial Hospital, and there were random huddled forms tucked away all over, near fences, in doorways or some just plopped down on sidewalks like they gave up trying.
As the number of downtown pedestrians dropped, the homeless became more noticeable, lugging bags, bedrolls and battered suitcases.
“Look at that guy with a blanket,” said Jackson, pointing at a man wrapped in a sleeping bag, walking around and talking to nobody. “The streets will crack you up. Don’t want to end up like him.”
Even in the homeless com-
munity, there’s a pecking order. And the hapless man on Peachtree Street was a cautionary tale.
I met the 57-year-old Jackson near the now closed Peachtree-Pine shelter in Midtown. The massive brick edifice that once housed 500 or more wretched souls each night was finally, after much acrimony, shut down in December of last year.
Jackson said if he could have, he would have slept at Peachtree-Pine that night. “Without a doubt. You could go to the Pine when you had no place to go.”
A year after its closing, I wanted to assess the situation. It was said that closing the large shelter would flood the other facilities and there would be nowhere for many to go on nights when it got cold.
Anecdotal evidence shows the number of homeless people on the sidewalks of downtown and Midtown and on MARTA or at the airport (two places that Jackson haunts) has increased.
However, the official count of homeless people in Atlanta dropped again this year, down 14 percent from 2017 to 3,076, according to a point-in-time census conducted in January. Homelessness in Atlanta has been cut almost in half since 2011, according to city numbers.
There was, however, a slight increase in the number of “unsheltered” homeless, to 732, the first bump in years.
George Chidi, the “social impact director” at Central Atlanta Progress and point man for the closing of Peachtree-Pine, said there may have been reverberations from the Pine’s closing. Or maybe because of gentrification and the lack of affordable housing. He said the city also needs a day center for the homeless, the lack of which makes them more visible.
“Tent cities are popping up all over, which is frustrating,” he said. “The people on the bottom are getting bumped into the street. People are pushed into abandoned buildings. Those in abandoned build- ings are getting turned out. It’s a cascade down. There’s no place to land.”
Chidi also said, “We are seeing more people who are chronic. We’re seeing more mentally ill.”
Some 40 percent have “serious mental illness” issues and 40 percent have substance abuse problems, according to the city count.
I’d wager it’s higher in both categories.
Chidi noted that Jack Hardin, a lawyer who has been a leader in fighting homelessness since the 1980s, this year started twisting arms to fund outreach teams to go out and build relationships with the homeless.
“It takes a while, a lot of trust-building to get someone to accept help,” said Hardin, chairman of the Gateway Center, which was set up by the city to be the official homeless agency. “We probably